Name: Frankenstein
Rating: 4.09375 (32 reviews)
ISBN: 9781403757920

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

Bethany Snyder

A monster assembled by a scientist from parts of dead bodies develops a mind of his own as he learns to loathe himself and hate his creator.

Frankenstein

Bhavana

You have hope, and the world before you, and have no cause for despair. But I - I have lost every thing and cannot begin life anew.

Who shall conceive the horrors of my secret toil as I dabbled among the unhallowed damps of the grave or tortured the living animal to animate the lifeless clay?

It appeared to me sacrilege so soon to leave the repose, akin to death, of the house of mourning and to rush into the thick of life.

I took my copy of Frankenstein from a free book shelf that they had at my high school, figuring I’d read it eventually. I guess I was right, but it took a college assignment for me to finally get around to it. Truthfully, I have been avoiding it. The legacy and mythos has always made it feel like an intimidating read to me. Though, I think that’s just how anything that fits into the literary canon feels. Well, I didn’t like it. Which is a shame because lately I’ve really been on a Gothic Horror kick.

There were some undertones that became hard to ignore at points. Racial undertones, class undertones. Most of her characters are moralized through being of nobility. Even characters who are poor are fallen nobility- they can’t just be regular poor people. An odd amount of emphasis is put on how golden haired and blue eyed Elizabeth is compared to the other, distinctly poor, distinctly brown haired and brown eyed children she is playing with. An Arabian girl is introduced and she’s nice but she’s put into a moral contrast with her practicing Muslim father. The text puts an uncomfortable emphasis on how much she doesn’t want to go back to her sexist home country, how Christian she is, and how evil her father is, when moralizing her. Small bits like these seeped into the narrative and made it difficult to read at points. I can tell that it’s certainly trying to be progressive for its time but out of all of the classics I’ve read (so far) this one is definitely the weirdest and the one in which the more peculiar themes prevail consistently throughout.

I also found parts of the narrative overly repetitive. Victor gets sick and reheals multiple times. He remembers the beauty of nature and the importance of his family multiple times. Both the Monster and Victor continue to talk about how they’re the worst and most miserable person on Earth ad nauseum. It gets a bit much when it goes on for 200 pages.

Well truthfully I’m writing this review about a month after reading the book. And I read this for a class where all I’m doing is analyzing the book and its themes through different modes of literary theory so I can’t say I have no appreciation for it. Studying it has made me warm for it, the themes are certainly the more interesting part to it compared to… the actual narrative. Well, in my opinion.

Rachel

I took my copy of Frankenstein from a free book shelf that they had at my high school, figuring I’d read it eventually. I guess I was right, but it took a college assignment for me to finally get around to it. Truthfully, I have been avoiding it. The legacy and mythos has always made it feel like an intimidating read to me. Though, I think that’s just how anything that fits into the literary canon feels. Well, I didn’t like it. Which is a shame because lately I’ve really been on a Gothic Horror kick.

There were some undertones that became hard to ignore at points. Racial undertones, class undertones. Most of her characters are moralized through being of nobility. Even characters who are poor are fallen nobility- they can’t just be regular poor people. An odd amount of emphasis is put on how golden haired and blue eyed Elizabeth is compared to the other, distinctly poor, distinctly brown haired and brown eyed children she is playing with. An Arabian girl is introduced and she’s nice but she’s put into a moral contrast with her practicing Muslim father. The text puts an uncomfortable emphasis on how much she doesn’t want to go back to her sexist home country, how Christian she is, and how evil her father is, when moralizing her. Small bits like these seeped into the narrative and made it difficult to read at points. I can tell that it’s certainly trying to be progressive for its time but out of all of the classics I’ve read (so far) this one is definitely the weirdest and the one in which the more peculiar themes prevail consistently throughout.

I also found parts of the narrative overly repetitive. Victor gets sick and reheals multiple times. He remembers the beauty of nature and the importance of his family multiple times. Both the Monster and Victor continue to talk about how they’re the worst and most miserable person on Earth ad nauseum. It gets a bit much when it goes on for 200 pages.

Well truthfully I’m writing this review about a month after reading the book. And I read this for a class where all I’m doing is analyzing the book and its themes through different modes of literary theory so I can’t say I have no appreciation for it. Studying it has made me warm for it, the themes are certainly the more interesting part to it compared to… the actual narrative. Well, in my opinion.

This was my first classic. I read this in 5th grade and absolutely loved it!

Tiara Sharma

This was my first classic. I read this in 5th grade and absolutely loved it!



'Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.'

'I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.'

It is much more poignant than I had imagined with the monster metaphorically representing societal outcasts while interconnecting questions of morality. This book is very dense in places, but it is nevertheless a gripping gothic classic.

Eleanor 

'Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.'

'I am alone and miserable. Only someone as ugly as I am could love me.'

It is much more poignant than I had imagined with the monster metaphorically representing societal outcasts while interconnecting questions of morality. This book is very dense in places, but it is nevertheless a gripping gothic classic.

I thought I knew the story of Frankenstein, but I was totally wrong as I found out. The story was great, I enjoyed it so much, one of my favorite classics!! -1/2 star for the constant whining though, it became annoying at one point 

ally

Isabela H 

This book was absolutely AMAZING and I loved every second of it. 

As someone who considers herself a lover of all things scifi and horror, I definitely call this book a must-read for anyone who loves the scifi or horror genre. 

While a "classic" that some may consider boring, Mary Shelley is able to grab the attention of the reader as she forces them to watch with horror the events unfolding in front of them. Along the way, readers are forced to question their own beliefs about monsters VS humans, and what makes one one or the other...

Celestine Taevs-Nakaya

iachille

No idea if mary Shelley wanted to write a didactic novel but sure she did it. We have so much to learn about ourselfs and people around us, Frankenstein helps us doing it.

Frankenstein

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